Cancer

The Evolutionary Legacy

Mel Greaves

In this lucid and fascinating book, Mel Greaves argues that evolutionary biology offers a new perspective that can help us unravel the riddle of cancer. Why, for example, have women always had such a raw deal in the cancer stakes? And why are some cancers, such as prostate cancer, increasing in incidence? Greaves argues that Darwinian selection millions of years ago has endowed our genes and cells with inherently cancerous credentials, and this is exacerbated by our rapid social evolution and exotic behavioral traits that outpace genetic adaptation. The book is full of novel insights, the latest scientific discoveries, and wonderful historical anecdotes. It provides a unique portrait of cancer, past, present, and future.

Cancer

The Evolutionary Legacy

Mel Greaves

Description

Every day, 1500 Americans die of cancer, and yet for most of us this deadly disease remains mysterious. Why is it so common? Why are there so many different causes? Why does treatment so often fail? What, ultimately, is cancer? In this fascinating new book, a leading cancer researcher offers general readers clear and convincing answers to these and many other questions. Mel Greaves places cancer in its evolutionary context, arguing that we can best answer the big questions about cancer by looking through a Darwinian lens. Drawing on both ancient and more modern evolutionary legacies, he shows how human development has changed the rules of evolutionary games, trapping us in a nature-nurture mismatch. Compelling examples, from the King of Naples intestinal
tumor in the 15th century, through the epidemic of scrotal skin cancer in 18th-century chimney sweeps, to the current surge of cases of prostate cancer illustrate his thesis. He also shows why the old paradigms of infectious diseases or genetic disorders have proved fruitless when trying to explain this complex and elusive disease. And finally, he looks at the implications for research, prevention, and treatment of cancer that an evolutionary perspective provides. Drawing on the most recent research, this is the first book to put cancer in its evolutionary framework. At a time when Darwinian perspectives on everything from language acquisition to economics are providing new breakthroughs in understanding, medicine seems to have much to gain from the insights provided by
evolutionary biology. Written in an exceptionally lucid and entertaining style, this book will be of broad interest to all those who wish to know more about this dread disease.

Cancer

The Evolutionary Legacy

Mel Greaves

Table of Contents

Figure acknowledgementsPart One: Cancer: ancient legacies and modern myths 1. Perplexed? You should be2. The King of Naples and other silent witnesses3. Soot, civilization, and neuroses4. An evolutionary viewNotes to Part OnePart Two: Evolving cancer 5. Pundit's progress6. Clones, clones, clones7. The way we are: risks and restraints8. How cancer cells play the winning game9. St. Peregrine's progress10. Green-eyed mutations?11. Off to a shaky start12. Blind chance - and ultimate extinction?Notes to Part TwoPart Three: Paradox of progress: indecent exposures 13. Is cancer an evolutionary inevitability?14. And then you set fire to it?15. Women's troubles16. Men's troubles17. Cancer d`a deux18. Other ways of getting bugged19. Travelling light20. The great glut21. Dying for a living22. Collateral damage23. Finale: cause, complexity, and the evolutionary rubNotes to Part ThreePart Four: Finessing the clone 24. Treatment: the blindfolded marksman25. Epilogue: cancer in the twenty-first centuryNotes to Part FourGeneral facts, figures, help, and adviceGlossaryIndex

Cancer

The Evolutionary Legacy

Mel Greaves

Author Information

Mel Greaves is Director of the Leukemia Research Fund Center at the Institute of Cancer Research, in London. The winner of several awards for cancer research, he lives in London.

Cancer

The Evolutionary Legacy

Mel Greaves

Reviews and Awards

"This is an excellent, concise book with an unusually broad range of appeal. It provides an engaging overview of cancer biology for a bright college student, a medical student, or an oncology fellow. Because of its unusual evolutionary perspective, it will also be enjoyed and appreciated by experienced oncologists and cancer researchers."--Oncology Times

"Greaves's study is complex and dense, but readers who stick with it will have a solid understanding of one of the most feared of all diseases."--Kirkus Reviews

"Cancer: The Evolutionary Legacy is a thought-provoking perspective on cancer and evolution.... Greaves does and excellent job of explaining and placing cancer within the broad framework of evolution." --The New England Journal of Medicine

"Provides a feast of information about cancer that, like most banquets, is best consumed slowly: savor each course, enjoy relationships among the courses, become aware of the cook's creativity and skill...Greaves punctures myths, examines theories, and successfully sets the whole field of cancer research in perspective."--Booklist